‘No Flock here!’: Demonstrators protest ICE, city’s use of surveillance cameras

Enrique Castañeda was hesitant to come to the protest.  

As an international student from Mexico who came to the United States to attend Indiana University, he knows what it’s like to feel the need to carry a passport and visa out to feel safe when he goes out.  

But there he was, holding a sign and shouting with other protesters at the Monroe County Courthouse as an impromptu drumline beat out the rhythm of the chants on black plastic buckets.  

“Refugees are welcome here!” they screamed. Cars honked in support as they passed, and cheers erupted.  

“It’s really crazy what ICE is doing to the communities,” Castañeda said. “I think it’s really nice to see this sense of community, and just everyone coming together.” 

About 400 demonstrators crowded around City Hall in sub-freezing temperatures at noon Friday for an event organized by the Bloomington branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. 

They protested U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Bloomington’s use of 40 Flock Safety surveillance cameras around the city that read license plates. Protestors and the American Civil Liberties Union allege the information tracked by the cameras is being used by ICE. 

At a virtual town hall Monday, Mayor Kerry Thomson said she intended to meet with Flock Safety in February to discuss security issues. She had said it was her intention that ICE not be able to access data from Flock cameras. 

Still, protesters chanted “No Flock here” and held signs that said “HOW THE FLOCK DOES THAT BOOT TASTE KERRY?” 

Connor Hatch, an IU sophomore, said he skipped school as a part of a Jan. 30 “National shutdown,” which encourages people to not go to work, school or shop to protest ICE. He said he felt he needed to show up, no matter how cold it was, and shared his disapproval for the Flock security system. 

“I think the best result is simply removing the cameras,” he said. “I think we can do just fine, enforcing laws in the city without them.” 

Speakers from the Bloomington DSA, the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition and the Palestine Solidarity Committee condemned the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, among others, who were both shot in Minneapolis by federal agents.  

“We are grateful that the public is increasingly opposing ICE,” Erin Aquino, the resettlement director of Exodus Refugee Bloomington, said. “But it should not require the killing of two white people to bring that into national conversation.” 

She said other people, such as Victor Manuel Diaz and Luis Beltrán Yanez–Cruz, have also died in ICE custody this month and that immigrant communities have been terrorized every day. 

Every day, Aquino said she hears desperate fear and anxiety from the people Exodus serves about ICE. People are afraid to leave their homes and buy groceries, she said. She offered a moment of silence for those who have lost their lives in ICE custody or because of ICE.  

Speakers also denounced listings for U.S. Customs and Border Protection virtual career events on IU’s campus calendar, claiming that IU was complicit in allowing the posting to appear on its site.  

“Do we really want to recruit students to an agency that is executing people?” one speaker asked. 

Chancellor David Reingold said at a Bloomington Faculty Council meeting Tuesday he was unfamiliar with the listing and was hoping to find a way forward without canceling the event. 

Bryce Greene, who previously helped organize a pro-Palestine encampment on IU’s campus in April 2024, encouraged protesters to become more involved in organizations like the DSA to take sustained action.  

“These systems won’t just collapse if you show up to another protest,” Greene said. “The only way that anything good has every happened in human history is because people banded together and made it happen.” 

Some demonstrators passed out whistles and zines that described how to use the whistles to signal to the community when ICE agents are in the area. 

After the speakers finished, some protesters disbanded while around 200 others marched to Sample Gates, obstructing traffic on Kirkwood Avenue. They chanted there for a few minutes before heading to the Monroe County Courthouse, where they gathered and chanted “Fuck ICE!” 

Reddened fingers gripped cardboard and notebook paper signs. More than once, angry passers-by pulled over to shout at those standing in the road, and one altercation escalated to the point where a man was sprayed in the face with a substance.  

The man was pushing past the protesters, telling them that they were blocking the sidewalk, before engaging in a verbal altercation with one protestor. As demonstrators walked across an intersection, he approached a man with what appeared to be a gun slung across his chest. 

“You want to shoot me? Then shoot me,” he shouted as he approached the man.  

The man with the gun then sprayed him with a tan substance. He walked away, wiping his eyes. 

The armed man continued to stand in front of the protesters and help people cross the street to the courthouse. A pair of middle schoolers spontaneously joined the protest after their half-day of school, eventually obtaining their own signs and chanting along with everyone else.  

Cristina Martinez, an IU master’s student from Puerto Rico, held a sign that said “ICE melts under resistance” in English and Spanish.  

“What ICE is doing is not human,” she said. “This has been going on for a lot of years, and now that people are like finally waking up because a white person was killed.” 

Protestors left the Monroe County Courthouse after about 25 minutes, walking on the sidewalk down Kirkwood as they followed a trio of drummers at the front.  

They circled around Sample Gates again, their numbers dwindling as they looped back west. Some stopped to argue with cars. Others spray-painted the snow, chanting as they marched down the street. 

“No Trump!” they chanted. “No KKK! No facist USA!”